Cord Cutters News – Luke Bouma – “Been thinking about giving HBO a try? Today may be your lucky day because all Sling TV subscribers have free access to HBO and all of the HBO On-Demand content! This deal is running through Monday, February 19th 2018…

Not a Sling TV subscriber? Sling TV is still offering a 7-day free trial that will give you access to the FREE HBO deal. You can head over to their site and sign up for any of their plans starting at just $20 a month.”

ZDNet – By: Liam Tung – “Google’s Project Zero team has published details of an unfixed bypass for an important exploit-mitigation technique in Edge.

The mitigation, Arbitrary Code Guard (ACG), arrived in the Windows 10 Creators Update to help thwart web attacks that attempt to load malicious code into memory. The defense ensures that only properly signed code can be mapped into memory.

However, as Microsoft explains, Just-in-Time (JIT) compilers used in modern web browsers create a problem for ACG. JIT compilers transform JavaScript into native code, some of which is unsigned and runs in a content process.

To ensure JIT compilers work with ACG enabled, Microsoft put Edge’s JIT compiling in a separate process that runs in its own isolated sandbox. Microsoft said this move was ‘a non-trivial engineering task’.

‘The JIT process is responsible for compiling JavaScript to native code and mapping it into the requesting content process. In this way, the content process itself is never allowed to directly map or modify its own JIT code pages,’ Microsoft says.

Google’s Project Zero found an issue is created by the way the JIT process writes executable data into the content process.

Its ‘ACG bypass using UnmapViewofFile’ allows a compromised content process to predict which address a JIT process is going to call VirtualAllocEx() next, and for the content process to ‘allocate a writable memory region on the same address JIT server is going to write and write an soon-to-be-executable payload there’.

Google reported the medium-severity issue to Microsoft in mid-November and published details of the bypass yesterday as it had passed its 90-day deadline.

Microsoft confirmed the ACG bypass in a response to Google at some point to February’s Patch Tuesday. It appeared to have been aiming to fix the issue by then but found it to be ‘more complex’ than initially thought. It’s now targeting Patch Tuesday in March for a fix.

‘The fix is more complex than initially anticipated, and it is very likely that we will not be able to meet the February release deadline due to these memory management issues,’ Microsoft said.

‘The team IS positive that this will be ready to ship on March 13, however this is beyond the 90-day SLA and 14-day grace period to align with Update Tuesdays.'”

How does the free trial work?
Enter your phone number to sign in and get start your trial. We’ll check back later to get your billing information, to unlock your full 7 days of free access. After your trial, your subscription begins. You can cancel at any time, and your card will never be charged if you cancel before the end of your free trial.

How much does Philo cost?
Our basic set of channels is $16 per month, as a subscription, with more channels available for an additional $4 each month. There is no other cost or contract.

When can I cancel?
After your free trial, you can cancel or restart your subscription yourself, any time, as many times as you wish, via our account page.

Can I record live TV or future shows to watch later?
Yes, you can save your favorite shows to watch up to 30 days later.

Can I watch on multiple devices at the same time?
Yes, you can watch different shows or channels (or the same show or channel) on up to 3 devices at the same time.

About Philo:

Tired of strange things in online television? Everything feel like a mishmash of chopped up services and bad things that break? Philo is building a better platform for TV on the Internet, right here in Silicon Valley. We are creating the next generation of TV, connecting friends with a big bang of technology.

Expect plenty of developments in 2018 as more viewers turn to the Internet for their TV entertainment as more subscription services attempt to woo them.

Two trends power the ongoing TV transformation: the growing number of U.S. homes with high-speed broadband Internet service and the slow decline in homes with traditional pay-TV service.

About 82% of all U.S. homes get broadband now, up from 76% in 2012, according to the Leichtman Research Group. And broadband homes (94.5 million) now eclipse the number of homes with traditional pay TV (about 92.2 million), the research firm says.

Meanwhile, pay-TV providers overall continue to lose subscribers. About 405,000 signed off in the third quarter alone. However, the growth in broadband-delivered live TV services such as Sling TV and DirecTV Now is helping offset those losses. More than 2.5 million now subscribe to them, Leichtman Research says.

What else can streaming video devotees expect in 2018?

Rise of the skinny bundles. Those seeking to cut the cord or increase their streaming options could have even more broadband-delivered live TV choices in the months ahead.

The virtual-TV competition truly heated up in 2017. In March, Google joined the fray with its $35 monthly YouTube TV service, complete with more than 40 live TV channels. Two months later, Hulu began offering more than 50 live TV channels ($39.99 monthly) in addition to its subscription on-demand programming from major networks and its own originals (starting at $7.99 monthly with limited ads).

Also new on the scene: Philo, a $16 monthly entertainment-focused service launched last month with more than three dozen channels including A&E, AMC, BET, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, HGTV and OWN — notably absent are sports and news.

Sports-oriented fuboTV ($39.99 after two months at $19.99) has grown from a soccer-centric streaming service two years ago to now offer more than 65 channels including Fox and NBC broadcast, news and sports channels.

A new livestreaming TV service called Philo launches today, and it’s sure to get the attention of people sick of paying high cable bills for channels they don’t watch.

Already up and running were Sling TV (starting at $20), launched by Dish Network in Feb. 2015, and Sony’s PlayStation Vue ($39.99 and up), which debuted a month later. AT&T, which acquired DirecTV in May 2014, began offering its DirecTV Now service ($35 and up) in November 2016.

A possible new player is Amazon, which could attempt to deliver its own live TV service as a way to accelerate allegiance to its Amazon Prime service ($99 annual fee) and eventually monetize advertising, says Joel Espelien, an analyst with Plano, Texas-based research firm The Diffusion Group.

Amazon already makes available to Prime subscribers thousands of TV episodes and movies including original content and NFL Thursday Night Football. A bigger play by Amazon would be ‘tremendously disruptive’ and likely cannibalize current and future subscribers to other services, Espelien says in a recent research note.

The extent to which current traditional pay-TV subscribers move to virtual Net TV services in 2018 will likely dictate whether broadband TV solidifies ‘a position as either the low budget-end of the pay-TV market or (as) a force of radical change in the U.S. pay-TV industry,’ said Brett Sappington, senior research director for Parks Associates, a research firm in Addison, Texas.

Competition for content. Look for streaming services to try to lock down rights for coveted TV series and movies that will keep subscribers on board, with Disney planning its own subscription video offering sometime in 2019.

It’s already a crowded marketplace, with more than 200 streaming services available to subscribers, according to Parks Associates. Netflix is the leader — Amazon, Hulu and MLB.tv. hold the next three spots — and to maintain its dominance it plans to ramp up content spending to as much as $8 billion in 2018.

That will likely be needed as Disney CEO Bob Iger has said in the buildup to launching its own service that the entertainment powerhouse plans to be selfish in licensing its current content and well as fare it gained from the $52.4 billion bid for much of 21st Century Fox including its TV and movie studios.

Netflix has already signed several creative deals, including one with Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes. Meanwhile, Amazon Studios’ landed The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and Skybound Entertainment, the entertainment company he founded with producer David Alpert, to a two-year deal developing exclusive TV series.

And Hulu has become a force to be reckoned with, with its The Handmaid’s Talewinning five Emmys in September.

Watch for more players to enter the content creation arena, just as Apple has done and is expected to invest about $1 billion in 2018. DirecTV Now or Sling are among those that could begin offering ‘some type of original content of their own,’ Espelien said.

Partnerships and, perhaps, attrition. With so many services available and more on the way — including ESPN Plus in early 2018 — some smaller or niche offerings may need to team up to survive.

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey found cord cutters have three services on average, but they only watch two of them on a regular basis. Cord-trimming super-users (who also have slimmed-down traditional pay TV service) foot the bill for more, four services on average, but they still only watch two on a regular basis.

That means some binge-watchers may eventually tire of paying the monthly bill for services they rarely use. So there could be ‘a significant ramp up in partnerships,’ Sappington said, to help struggling services ‘get to the next level.’

Changes coming for Hulu. If successful in its bid for Fox, Disney will add the 30% stake in Hulu owned by Fox to its current 30% stake. That will leave Comcast (NBCUniversal) with another 30% share and Time Warner holding 10%. (That share could eventually go to AT&T if the telecom giant wins its own $85.4 billion bid for the entertainment company.)

Some possibilities for Hulu include Disney attempting to buy out Comcast and taking command of the service or Comcast buying out Disney. Comcast has been a silent partner in Hulu, a condition under its 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal. That condition ends in August 2018. (Comcast acquired the remaining 49% of NBCUniversal from GE in 2013.)

‘It will be interesting to see how the politics plays out,’ Sappington said, ‘and how that will affect the service and its content.'”

In our quest to find ways to cut the cord… of cable, that is… I’ve been looking into various applications that would give you access to TV shows and movies via the Internet. Not all are completely legal and licensed, so you have to be aware of what you have legal access to and what you do not have legal access to. This is a decision you will have to make personally, and become compliant to the law personally. However, I would be remiss from a technical point of view if I did not share with you all the options you have for viewing programs and let you decide how to best apply your own moral principles.

One of the most interesting applications that I’ve found, is TerrariumTV, it does however have it shortcomings, not the least of which is all the ads that are shown in TerrariumTV. I realize that the author of the software has to monetize his application as best he can, but the ads that come up in TerrariumTV seem more annoying than most!

This led me to a new application, called Tea, (as in the drink,) TV. What is TeaTV? It is an application that does what TerrariumTV does, but with better features, a cleaner interface, and it appears to me, way less commercials than TerrariumTV. The cleaner interface is much easier to use, and the additional information provided, such as information on the actors that are featured in TV shows and movies, is welcome as well!

If you go under the “Settings” option within the software, you also have the option to clear the cache of the application, which will free up resources on your device as well as help with any issues that you may encounter when using the software. I have found this very useful during my testing. I’ll do a demo video on the Dr. Bill.TV show to show you what I mean. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, here is the link to TeaTV. You will notice that there are versions for Windows, MacOS, Android, and Linux! You have to love that! It is truly a cross-platform application.

Watch almost all TV shows and Movies
It provides almost any TV shows and movies. Many genre such as Drama, Crime, Comedy, Adventure, Family, Horror, Thriller, Romance, Western, Animation, Biography and more.

Download videos and watch offline
All available on this site in full HD quality.
You can also download the episodes in 480p, 720p and 1080p quality.

What is TeaTV?
The fastest, easiest way to find and discover movies, actors and shows.

Awesome interface.
TeaTV has been built from the ground up with performance in mind for a fast and efficient experience to surfing your collection.

Does it cost?
TeaTV is working on your behalf and making entertainment free, at no cost to you.

Login? No need.
You don’t need to have an account when using TeaTV.

Join now
Watch trailers, read reviews and get shows seasons details, get the latest information on upcoming movie releases. Choosing the right movie has never been so easy.

Simple and Elegant
You can keep track of the movies you own, the movies you wish you had, the movies you saw and the movies you want to watch.”

AndroidCentral – By: Jared Dipane – “Amazon has already discounted had the Echo Dot priced at $40 for the past week or so, but this new deal helps drop that price even lower. Simply adding two Echo Dots to your cart (in either color) will result in an additional $10 discount, which drops them down to just $35 each.

Buying multiple Echo Dots may be smarter than you think. Odds are once you start using it to answer questions, control your smart home gear, and other tasks you will want another one for your house. You can use them to talk to each other if you wanted or to play music in multiple rooms.

I have four of these in my house already, and this deal probably just upped that to six. Don’t miss out on this great price.”

The Verge – By: Chris Welch – “YouTube TV, the company’s internet TV streaming service, is expanding its programming with the addition of several Turner networks including TBS, TNT, CNN, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, truTV, and Turner Classic Movies. Those channels are all being added to the core monthly package, giving customers access to hits like Rick and Morty, TNT’s new drama The Alienist, and a nice selection of live sports. On that note, YouTube TV is also bringing NBA TV and MLB Network to the base lineup. NBA All Access and MLB.TV will be offered as optional paid add-ons ‘in the coming months.’

But there’s a significant downside coming along with the good news: these changes are leading to a price hike. Starting March 13th, YouTube TV’s monthly subscription cost will rise from $35 to $40. All customers who join the service prior to the 13th will be able to keep the lower $35 monthly rate going forward. And if you’ve been waiting for YouTube to add Viacom channels, that still hasn’t happened yet.

$40/month puts YouTube TV on par with Hulu’s live television service and Sony’s PlayStation Vue. Other competitors continue to offer lower starting subscription prices, however; Sling TV starts at $20, while DirecTV Now’s base package is $35. YouTube seems to believe that the unique perks of its service — a cloud DVR with no storage limits and six individual users per account — are enough to compensate for the increased price. And again, the company is giving people time to get in before it takes effect.

Hopefully these jumps in subscription cost won’t happen very often. Otherwise these internet TV businesses might suddenly start feeling more like cable (and not in a good way).

YouTube is continuing to improve availability, as well. Today it’s adding a bunch of new YouTube TV markets including: Lexington, Dayton, Honolulu, El Paso, Burlington, Plattsburgh, Richmond, Petersburg, Mobile, Syracuse, Champaign, Springfield, Columbia, Charleston, Harlingen, Wichita, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton. With those added to the total footprint, YouTube claims its TV service is now available in the top 100 US markets and over 85 percent of US households. The product launched last April in just five cities, so that’s not bad progress for a year.”

This Week’s Dr. Bill.TV Netcast!

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